Nostalgia & History > WAG Wednesday: Pioneer memories at Lincoln

In March of 1959 Bill Gibson paid a visit to Lincoln, NE. A very famous piece of American railroad history was still in service there in Lincoln, but would be retired in less than a year. Bill shot a photo-study of the Burlington’s original Pioneer Zephyr: CB&Q 9900. Other than a few railfan publication snippets here & there I know very little about this famous train. But through the magic of modern on-line search capability I was able to find these excerpts paraphrased from Wikipedia & American Rails.com:

**Union Pacific’s M-10000 “City of Salina“ is actually the first “streamliner” to enter regular service. It’s debut beat the Burlington’s “Pioneer Zephyr” debut by just a few months. But with the great public attention it captured with its shiny, stainless steel carbody and incredibly fast speeds, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy is generally credited with starting the streamliner era in the United States. On May 26, 1934 the Pioneer Zephyr set a speed record for travel between Denver, CO and Chicago, IL when it made a 1,015-mile (1,633 km) non-stop dawn-to-dusk dash in 13 hours 5 minutes at an average speed of 77 mph (124 km/h). For one section of the run it reached a speed of 112.5 mph (181 km/h), just short of the then US land speed record of 115 mph (185 km/h). The historic dash inspired a 1934 film and the train's nickname, "The Silver Streak". The train entered regular revenue service on November 11, 1934 between Kansas City, MO, Omaha and Lincoln, NE. It operated this and other routes until its retirement in 1960, when it was donated to Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, where it remains on public display.**

As any active railfan knows, there are times when that mean old weatherman just won’t cooperate. Bill’s visit to Lincoln was hampered with overcast weather. But considering the subject matter I’m hoping you can still enjoy this 56 year peek into the past as much as I do…

1. 2. & 3. CB&Q Pioneer Zephyr 9900 sits posing in various angles at the Q passenger station in Lincoln, NE on March 29, 1959.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/28/22 20:53 by santafe199.

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Just one more…

4. Bill shot a close up of this plaque attached to the 9900.
Four photos by William A. Gibson (WAG Sr) Sr.

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels (santafe199)
Art Gibson (wag216)

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Superb.
Thanks for posting!

Nice post and photos.  It is so nice to see photos of many of the RR items that were before our railfanning days and out of the area where we grew up--(seems like Lincoln was a world of travel away from Salina or Manhattan KS back then).  I have the 1934 movie on tape--think I will watch it again later today.  
Thanks Art and Lance for showing these.
Brian Stevens

That's awesome!  Love seeing these shots of it in service!

- Jeff Carlson

SCKP187 Wrote: > ... seems like Lincoln was a world of travel away from Salina or Manhattan ... back then...
In a real way Lincoln, NE was a world away. After acquiring 35mm capability in late 1976 I would occasionally consider taking railfan trips up to Lincoln from Manhattan. It was only a bit over 2 hours to reach the St Joe/KC mainline at Firth, and just a short jog on in to Lincoln. But it seems that Uncle Pete would nearly always intercept me at Marysville. Then in 1978 the Santa Fe hired me and Emporia became home. A trip to Lincoln was now almost 4 hours, and Marysville was still the enticing 'roadblock'. I only made one more trip to Lincoln (1983?) before uprooting to Montana (via South Dakota) in 1987. I remember Lincoln being a friendly and pretty open place to shoot. But now of course, that friendliness is long gone... 

Lance/199

Thanks for posting these!  They bring back memories of seeing that train go thru Beatrice in the afternoon in the late fifties.  We knew when the train should be coming and tried to listen for his horn at a crossing south of town.  We'd run down to the tracks and watch him cross the viaduct over Perry Street.  I even rode it once!  

At that time, the train ran south to KC on an early morning train then returned via Table Rock, Wymore, Crete, then to Lincoln.  The attached scan is from a duplicate slide that I purchased on E-Bay.  9900 is stopped at the Wymore depot and will soon back up and go around the east leg of the wye there to continue its journey back to Lincoln.

When we were in Chicago a few years ago, we went to the museum where it's housed and took the tour thru it.

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Great shots, Lance!  Thanks for p[osting.

Randy Lundgren

twjurgens Wrote: > ... 9900 is stopped at the Wymore depot and...
Wow Tom, what a cool shot! I would never have guessed the 9900 ever plied the rails through Wymore. Especially not the Wymore I knew in the 70s! But then, as I said up top I know very little about the 9900's regular service history...

Willie (EMAW :^)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/30/16 03:07 by santafe199.

santafe199 Wrote:
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> twjurgens Wrote: > ... 9900 is stopped at the
> Wymore depot and...
> Ww Tom, what a cool shot! I would never have
> guessed the 9900 ever plied the rails through
> Wymore. Especially not the Wymore I knew in the
> 70s! But then, as I said up top I know very little
> about the 9900's regular service history...
>
> Willie (EMAW :^)

Passenger service ended in February, 1962.  The day before was seasonably warm and sunny but that last Saturday was cold and blustery.  I've got a couple images that someone gave me of the southbound train on the Friday before the last run.  I'll dig those out soon and post them.  The early morning run referred to in my earlier response went down the St. Joe sub through Tecumseh but returned via Wymore.

By coincidence, I was thru Lincoln today.  As with most American cities, that scene has changed quite a bit, but at least the station is still there, albeit with no tracks.

Topfuel Wrote:
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> By coincidence, I was thru Lincoln today.  As
> with most American cities, that scene has changed
> quite a bit, but at least the station is still
> there, albeit with no tracks.

The area around the O Street Viaduct has seen the biggest changes.  The rail yard there is gone and an arena in its place.  The town is really spreading out, mainly south and norhtwest.

Yes, the distinction was that the Pioneer Zephyr was the first Diesel Powered Streamliner!

Thanks for the post!

Really enjoyed the pictures and story!

Larry

 

That's a lot of verbage for a plaque!  And that headlight!  I wonder what the candlepower rating was on that thing?